Posted by Hemant Mehta in Not that any study shows that… but a news headline did say this:
Thank the Lord… right?
Not exactly. And the article’s author knows this.
“Surprisingly, the importance of religion to teens had very little impact on their educational outcomes,” [sociologist Jennifer] Glanville said. “That suggests that the act of attending church — the structure and the social aspects associated with it — could be more important to educational outcomes than the actual religion.”
It turns out whenever you are part of a tight knit community, have contact with good role models, have friends with similar interests/values, and have a healthy social life, you’re more likely to do better in school.
It doesn’t matter what religion you are or even if you’re religious at all.
Gotta love the headline spin, though…
Want to take a guess at how some religious people are going to use this information?
[...] sooner did I finish writing this as I found one more reason why some community is better than no community. « What I am and what I am not [...]
Exactly: stronger social networks give extra support for the individual. Also, peer-support will help you with your homework…
Go look on Yahoo News in the LiveScience section, and you will find an article called “Monsters, Ghosts and Gods: Why We Believe“. It says that a lot of people believe in paranormal phenomena because it can provide explanations for certain situations.
They only relate it to religion to discuss the prevalence of paranormal belief amongst religious people. But I think the basic explanation is the same as to why people believe.